Amphoterus is named in mythic genealogies as the son of Alcmaeon by Callirrhoe, daughter of the river-god Achelous. His narrative role arises after the murder of Alcmaeon: in several accounts Amphoterus and his brother Acarnan unexpectedly attain adult stature at the same moment, enabling them to pursue vengeance for their father's death. Sources place these events within the wider cycle of the Epigoni and link them to locales such as the burial of Alcmaeon at Psophis and episodes involving the robe and necklace associated with Harmonia and Delphi.
Primary source summaries emphasize a striking motif rather than a detailed physical portrait: Amphoterus (with his brother Acarnan) is said to have 'suddenly become grown-up' — an abrupt maturation from childhood to adult form noted in multiple accounts. Beyond the sudden maturation and their subsequent presence among avengers/warriors in the narrative (for example meeting others while bearing the robe/necklace episode), no consistent descriptive details (clothing, weapons, features) are supplied in the cited materials.
Amphoterus is characterized by his role and actions rather than by sustained supernatural powers: he participates with Acarnan in avenging their father Alcmaeon. The sudden maturation that enables their actions is consistently reported; one secondary source explicitly attributes the transformation to Zeus, but this specific agency is not uniformly attested across the cited texts, so the core attested ability is limited to the extraordinary coming-of-age and the filial vengeance they enact. No other magical or divine powers are recorded in the provided sources.
Acarnan
Acarnan (Ancient Greek: Ἀκαρνάν) is an anthroponym attested in Greek mythic and epic tradition as the name of at least two distinct mortal figures: a son of Alcmaeon and Callirrhoe, and a human suitor of Penelope from Dulichium. The lexical form also appears adjectivally/ethnically (Acarnanian), linking the word to the region Acarnania; etymologically the name is reported as derived from a Greek fish-name (akarnan).
Achelous
Achelous is the personified river-divinity of the Achelous River in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Regarded among the potamoi (river-gods), he is portrayed as a shape-changing elemental deity associated with springs, naiads, and the production of abundance (the horn/cornucopia motif); he appears in myths chiefly as suitor to Deianeira and as Heracles' opponent.
Epigoni
A mythic generation in Greek tradition comprising the sons (progeny) of the Argive heroes who fought in the first war against Thebes; they mount a second expedition against Thebes ten years after their fathers and function in the Theban epic cycle as heirs who avenge and continue their fathers' deeds.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
Aba (disambiguation / name-form)
Aba is a polyvalent name-form attested across many unrelated contexts (place names, personal names, animal names, and brief mythological listings). The provided sources do not support a single, coherent supernatural entity called "Aba" and offer no descriptive or ritual material for such a being.
Abarbarea
Abarbarea is a name attested in classical Greek and Roman sources for freshwater nymphs (naiads). The name appears for at least two individual mythic figures — a naiad wife of Bucolion and a naiad counted among ancestors of the Tyrians — and Hesychius records plural forms that may indicate the name was also used as a class-name (Abarbareai / Abarbalaiai).
Abas
Abas (Ancient Greek: Ἄβας, gen.: Ἄβαντος) is not a single mythic being but a recurring personal name borne by multiple mortals and minor mythic figures in Greek epic and genealogical traditions — kings, founders, seers, warriors, attendants, a centaur, and a youth transformed by a goddess. The name is glossed in the sources as 'guileless' or 'good-hearted' and appears across Argive, Theban, Trojan, Euboean, and other local cycles.
Abderus
Abderus (Ancient Greek: Ἄβδηρος, romanized Ábdēros) is a mortal heroic figure in Greek myth closely associated with Heracles, remembered as the youth left in charge of the Mares of Diomedes who was killed by them. He functions as an eponymous local/divine-hero ancestor for the city of Abdera and received funerary commemoration and athletic agones at his tomb.
Abomination of Desolation
An apocalyptic prophetic phrase originating in the Book of Daniel designating a profaning thing or act that renders the Jerusalem Temple cult desolate; later reused in the Synoptic Gospels as an eschatological sign prompting urgent flight. The term denotes ritual/cultic impurity (Hebrew shiqquts) and is variously interpreted as pagan offerings or altar, a foreign cult statue, or (in some New Testament readings) an acting agent.
Absyrtus
Absyrtus (Ancient Greek: Ἄψυρτος) is a Colchian prince in the Greek Argonautic cycle, son of King Aeëtes and brother or half-brother of Medea. He appears in variant traditions either as a companion taken by Medea during her flight with Jason and murdered/dismembered to delay pursuit, or as a pursuer sent by Aeëtes who is overtaken and slain by Jason; his death functions as a key narrative device in the escape from Colchis.
Acacallis
Acacallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀκακαλλίς; also Acalle) is a mythological princess of Crete in Greek tradition, daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae. She functions primarily as a dynastic and etiological figure: in varying accounts she is mother, by gods such as Hermes (Mercury) or Apollo, of eponymous or founder-figures like Cydon (founder of Cydonia), Miletus, or Lydon/ Lydus.
Acacus
Acacus (Ancient Greek: Ἄκακος) is, in Arcadian Greek tradition, a mortal eponymous founder-king of Acacesium and is remembered as the foster-father who reared the infant Hermes (Mercury) in that local tradition. He is presented in genealogies as a son of Lycaon and functions as a local ancestral/onomastic figure rather than a supernatural spirit.
Academus
Academus (Greek: Akádemos / Hekádemos) is an Attic hero-eponym tied to a sacred grove (Akademeia) on the Cephissus near Athens. In myth he revealed where Helen was hidden to the Dioskouroi, an act said to have saved the city, and the place bearing his name became a long-lived sacred precinct, later the site of Plato's Academy.
Acamas
Acamas (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάμας) is a personal name recurrent in ancient Greek narrative traditions applied to multiple human characters (warriors, princes, suitors), once to a Cyclops, and once as a hound's name. Rather than a single supernatural entity, bearers of the name appear episodically across the Trojan War, Theseid, and Theban cycles as mortal actors whose deeds intersect with gods and fate.
Acantha
Acantha (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάνθα, 'thorn') is a late or secondary mythological figure known from modern retellings as a nymph transformed into the acanthus plant. The tale that she scratched Apollo and was changed into a spiny-leaved plant is not attested in surviving classical corpora and appears to be a modern compilation or invention rather than a firmly documented ancient myth.
Community Record
- [1]Amphoterus (son of Alcmaeon) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Amphoterus (son of Alcmaeon)'wiki
- [2]Amphoterus — Wikipedia (general). Wikipedia, 'Amphoterus'wiki
- [3]EPIGONI - Greek Mythology Link. Greek Mythology Link, 'EPIGONI' (maicar.com)folk
- [4]Robe and Necklace of Harmonia - Greek Mythology Link. Greek Mythology Link, 'Robe and Necklace of Harmonia' (maicar.com)folk
- [5]Amphoterus entry — Myths UVic. Myths.uvic.ca, 'Amphoterus' (notes transformation attribution to Zeus in that entry)other
- [6]Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.17-35 (on Alcmaeon, Psophis). Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.17-35 (as cited on Theoi Classical Texts Library)literary
- [7]Apollodorus, The Library (Book 3). Apollodorus, The Library, Book 3 (summary editions consulted via Theoi)literary